As the World Falls Down
by lisa602
Summary: Sarah has lived happily in the Labyrinth with her husband, the Goblin King, for eleven years. What will happen when someone important from her childhood comes looking for her at her father's home and her younger brother, Toby, is eager to help look? Read first book, It's Only Forever, before continuing to this second installment.
1. 11 Years After

"And remember, whatever you do, _do not look him in the eyes_. He and his guards will take that as a terrible offense and cut us _both_ down." Jareth, the Goblin King, stated as he looked his wife up and down to make sure no hair or thread was out of place. They were walking down the intricate gold halls, led by exquisitely armored Fae, toward the dining room to have a small business dinner with the King of the Fae.

Sarah, a young woman in her late twenties, rolled her eyes. "Jareth, you've mentioned that three _thousand_ times already. I think I've got that rule down pat."

"You said that same exact sentence about the Duke of Trolls, yet you _still_ held out your hand to shake his."

"How was _I_ supposed to know he'd have his trolls set their wild boarives onto us?"

The boarives were quite simply boars with a wasp's wings, mandibles _and_ stingers. A very ugly, terrifying bunch; but easily outrun by Sarah's pet shakana, Autumn — a lovable creature with the body of a lion and the head of a troll.

"Because I explained it to you a _million_ times that the Duke of Trolls would do that if you tried to shake his hand. After the last time someone poisoned him, anyone trying to put any part of their body in contact with him _or_ his valuables is immediately assumed to be attempting to poison him."

Sarah sighed, deciding it would be best to end the argument before they ended up bickering right in front of the King. How awkward would that be? "I'm _sorry_ I like to be polite."

Jareth put an arm around her shoulder, "We can be polite in other ways, but I beg you to just look at your food during dinner today. Being able to keep my Labyrinth and my goblin subjects is in more danger of being taken away by the Fae King than it is by any other Lord or Lady."

"I understand _that_ ," she mumbled. "I wouldn't want to be the reason you lose anything."

"Be your charming self, just don't look him in the eyes. Remember, look at your food, not the eyes."

"If I do this right, will you finally explain to me how he decides someone is worthy to become a king or a duke of their own land?"

"I'll give you whatever you desire."

She smiled up at him, "I guess I can do it then."

* * *

The Fae King was a strongly built man with fluffy brown hair _and_ fluffy brown beard. Sarah couldn't afford to look at him thoroughly, so she kept her head down. Jareth bowed, she curtsied, and dinner had begun. She let her mind wander, remembering most of the Lords and Dukes only had business with Jareth and not with her. It was easier to stay out of the conversation if she just didn't pay attention.

She had travelled a lot with Jareth over the years, going to different countries in the underground. She'd even mastered a fighting technique which she'd used on multiple occasions when fae, trolls, and other creatures had underestimated her for being a human.

Sarah loved, however, that at the end of a full day she and Jareth went right back to the Labyrinth to tell her friends and the goblin subjects about what had happened. Sometimes she even brought one or more along for the journey; the grumbling dwarf named Hoggle, the adventure seeking fox Sir Didymus, the two old english sheep dogs Ambrosias and Merlin, Ludo the friendly beast, or Serboa the translator goblin.

More importantly, at the end of the night she would transform into a red-tailed hawk and Jareth into a snowy owl to go aboveground to check on her dad and little brother Toby. He'd grown fast over the years. Every time she saw him it was a miracle that he'd grown another inch and she had no doubt that he was already taller than her at the age of fifteen.

She left letters at the door every week so the two of them knew she was alright. Her dad's wife, Irene, generally couldn't have cared less. She was constantly pestering Toby to get his homework done and keep his hair in check which, at his age, was the least of his worries.

Sometimes Sarah thought about coming around in her own body but, as Jareth warned her, time was limited for her aboveground now. If she walked in she'd have a hard time walking out before losing connection with her magic that allowed her to return to the underground where she was happy to be.

"Sarah," Jareth nudged her shoulder.

She snapped her head up to look at him, " _Huh_?… I mean, yes dear?"

"The King would like to hear _your_ input on allowing more goblins to live in my Labyrinth. A lot of families have come to him asking for help to find somewhere to live. He feels that it's up to us whether they can come with us."

"Of _course_ they can come live in the Labyrinth. The more the merrier, am I right?" she smiled.

"Exactly what I said," Jareth said with a nod.

"Anyway," Sarah hazarded a question, "where else could they go?"

The Fae King answered, "There's nowhere else they _could_ go. We've been evicting them from their homes on the outer skirts of the kingdom for their apparent inability to do the work asked of all residents in the kingdom. There's been a steady rise in brand new Fae families looking to move into their own homes who are more than willing to do the work necessary."

Sarah's anger flared and she looked up at the Fae King, "How could you do that to any family? What if they're having trouble with an injury? What if everyone has to help out to take care of their kids? They have a _family_ to take care of and —"

Jareth squeezed her arm hard, and she whipped around to look at him. His look of 'shut up' reminded her what she was supposed to be doing. He looked apologetically at the King, whose smile was more amused than angry as Sarah had expected.

"On behalf of Sarah, I apologize."

The Fae King laughed, "Jareth, _you_ don't even give me the respect I ask. I'm surprisingly proud to see she is just as insolent as you are."

Sarah looked up at the Fae King in surprise, "Does that mean he doesn't avoid looking in your eyes?"

He chuckled, "Not in the slightest."

Punching Jareth in his arm, she took a better look at the eyes of the King — they were equivalent to that of the night sky. Immediately, she looked away as she felt something close to familiarity. But, that wasn't possible, she'd never met him before… it just seemed as though it were a distant memory trying hard to burst to the front of her thoughts.

"I knew Jareth could never have fallen in love with a mere human girl for being as meek as you pretended to be throughout this dinner. It didn't sound right to me."

"Oh, that wasn't me being meek," Sarah retorted adventurously. "I was just ignoring everything you two were saying so I wouldn't intrude."

The Fae King smiled, "It seems you found a good one, Jareth."

After a short glare at Sarah, Jareth had to smile and wrap an arm around her shoulder, "Yes, I did."

"On that note," Sarah mentioned, looking thoroughly between the both of them. Her face contorted in anger once more, " _Who_ is going to explain me why this would be allowed to happen to any family?!"


	2. The Stranger

It was an old picture, of a four year old boy and an eighteen year old girl smiling at the camera, that sat on the dresser. The boy with blue eyes and growing blonde hair. The girl with bright green eyes and straight, dark brown hair. It was there to keep him from forgetting her, though he'd been so young when she disappeared from his life he knew he missed her. She was his sister, and even at the time he knew she was willing to do anything and everything to protect him.

Of course, the picture flitted across Toby's memory as he walked home alone from school on a Friday night. Even though it sat on his dresser to keep him from forgetting, it was always on his mind whether he was at home or school. But sometimes he would come back home to find it in the trash can, courtesy of his mother who tried constantly to tell him to forget about Sarah.

"She's not coming back, Toby," she'd say. "I don't even know how you still remember her. You were so little when she left."

'Why _do_ I remember her?' he constantly thought to himself. Even now on his walk home, it always bugged him. 'Well, she was the only one who ever played with me. Mom and dad always acted like they were too old to really try.'

He stomped his boot hard into the snow, loving how deep it was in the grass. If he wanted to, he could just bury himself in one of the piles and no one would be able to find him for weeks. Yeah, that sounded nice.

A streetlight turned on next to him and he sighed. He wasn't home just yet, so his mom was going to throw a fit.

Toby slowly trudged through, dragging his feet and leaving a trail of two lines behind him. He didn't want to be at home where dad would always mention Sarah — hoping that she was doing all right and wondering when her next letter would come — and mom would bicker with the both of them about not worrying about what Sarah was doing. He also didn't want to be at school, where students had written him off as crazy because of his ramblings back when he was younger.

He clenched his hands into fists as he remembered what they'd said to him earlier that day, "Hey goblin boy! I forgot, why didn't you become a goblin?"

He'd refrained from answering, but couldn't just walk away for they'd grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him against the lockers. Toby had learned to ignore the pain, because all he could remember was the trouble he'd gotten into the last time he'd fought back. He broke noses, arms, legs, and many other body parts. Meanwhile, all these kids could do was push him around. They would threaten to break one of bones, but they'd always been too chicken to do it.

"Answer my question, goblin boy."

"That's not my name."

"Yeah, well that's the only name you've got."

Sometimes, Toby had to wonder if he'd soon forget his real name with how often 'goblin boy' popped up.

As he neared the house, he heard the all-too familiar screeching. No, not his mother — the red-tailed hawk that would greet him after dark. If he'd gotten home sooner, he'd have been in his room while the hawk tapped on his window. No one could figure why this hawk liked him so much, but it drove his mom nuts trying to find out if there were any people she could call to get it to stop coming around.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said out loud with a laugh. "I'm late. They made me stay after school." The hawk screeched once more and Toby merely sighed, muttering, "I'm talking to a hawk. That's what my social life is."

The front door slammed open, scaring the hawk into flight, as his mother stood in the door. "Where have you been?"

Toby rolled his eyes and tried to walk past her, "At school."

She barred his way in. "You're late. God, Sarah's not even around, and yet you're late without much reason."

"Do I need to spell out the reason, mom? That my teacher made me stay because I'm failing geometry? That on the way out of the classroom, I tripped over the garbage cans and had to help clean it up?"

He tried once again to get inside, but she continued to stand in his way.

"That's one thing that needs to be fixed. You're such a klutz! I'll have to see if I can find you a doctor to help with that."

He rubbed his head irritably, "Can I go inside and get my homework started, please?"

"Fine, just avoid the living room. There's nothing to see there."

Toby frowned. What was going on in the living room that he couldn't see? "The living room is right by the stairs, but do I have a reason not to look?"

"Not to look nor listen. Promise me that," she said, holding her finger up at him warningly.

"I won't," he said, holding his fingers crossed behind his back. He hadn't actually said "promise," but it didn't hurt to be extra sure.

She acquiescently let him pass at which point, as he turned to walk up the stairs, he took a sneak peak at what was going on in the living room… he was fairly disappointed to only see his father sitting in his armchair talking to a hooded figure on the couch. The way his mom was acting about it, he'd thought it was a little more exciting like a surprise present for him.

His mother pushed him up the stairs, making sure he went into his room and closed the door behind him.

He waited a moment, putting his backpack on the bed and listening at the door as her footsteps receded down the stairs. Slowly and silently, he opened the door and held onto the railing as he tip-toed down the stairs to listen in.

A woman's voice he didn't recognize said, "Robert, please, tell me where Sarah is. I need a location. Something! It's been eleven years and I have only received letters here and there. I hadn't seen her in forever!"

"And you think that if you don't have a location that I would?" he asked. "For the hundredth time, and may I hope it be the last, Sarah has never told us where she's living. I can only assume that she's constantly traveling. Her letters don't say anything specific about where she's been."

"How could you have let anyone take her with them without making certain that she was in good hands? Without making sure that she'd have a phone of some sort to contact you so you can ask?"

Robert seemed to have snapped, because his tone grew cold as he growled, "It's eleven years too late for you to decide that you can question my parenting abilities, Linda. Far too late. Especially since that is long after _I_ raised her through high school and _you_ left her high and dry for some glamorous life."

Toby's mouth dropped open. 'So this is Sarah's mother, Linda! Why is she here now?' His hand slipped as he leaned on the railing and, before he could regain his balance, he'd fallen to the bottom of the stairs.

"Toby! You promised!" his mother yelled.

"I didn't hear anything! I left to use the bathroom, and slipped down here…" he groaned as he stood up.

Irene rolled her eyes and walked to the kitchen, "I believe you, too."

Linda stood from the couch to go to Toby. She looked like an exact copy of Sarah, only older, so he found himself staring at her dumbfoundedly. "Maybe you have an idea of where Sarah is," she said. "You have no idea how desperate I am to find her."

Robert sighed irritably, "Linda, if I don't know where Sarah is, what makes you think my son will? Toby, go on up to your room, she was just on her way out the door."

"I'd be glad to help you look —" Toby started to say.

His father cleared his throat warningly, causing him to shut up and look at his feet in shame. 'Doesn't he _want_ to find Sarah, too?'

With a hand to Linda's back, he led her straight to the door. "Give my regards to that Jeremy fellow. I know he is just _so_ much _better_ than me in every way."

By that point, she had already walked through the entryway. As she turned around to respond, "Robert, I —" he slammed the door in her face.

Rounding on Toby, he said, "Toby, when I tell you to go to your room, I expect you to do it."

"I just.. she looked so worried, and to be honest I thought about how _we've_ missed Sarah. I mean, why not help look for her?"

"We don't associate with Linda. When Sarah was still living with us, even she had to realize she couldn't bother with her anymore. She's just sending her letters to be generous. As far as Sarah is concerned, I miss her too, but she will come back when she's ready."

Toby stared at his dad uncertainly, "You can't know that for sure when she never leaves us an address to message her back. What if it's not even her?"

"Of course it is. I know her handwriting."

"Anyone can copy that."

His dad looked at him, "Don't tell me a few minutes with Linda here has got you talking crazy. Go on upstairs, there's nothing to worry about. Sarah is fine."

Toby's eyes teared up, "How can you know for sure when we never see her?"

Before his father could react, he ran upstairs to his room.


	3. I Wish

Toby hugged his teddy bear, Lancelot, close to his chest as he stared at the ceiling. "What if we could have helped look for Sarah? What if everything is not as fine as her letters say she is? How would we feel if the police found Sarah in a ditch because whoever took her had only wanted her dead? I mean, _we_ don't know." He spoke to himself in a panic, wishing for someone he could confide in.

He heard a knock and, out of habit, yelled "Come in!"

The window slid open, causing Toby to jump in surprise as he realized the knock hadn't sounded off from the door. He slid off the bed trying to get up, scrambling to his feet to see the cloaked figure of Linda climbing in.

She closed the window behind her, putting her finger to her mouth with "Shhh… lock the door."

'Should I trust her?' he thought as he walked to the door and locked it as per her instruction. 'Well, if I didn't feel I could trust her, I wouldn't have locked my one way ticket out. There is still the window, but God I hate heights.'

"Can I ask you what you know about Sarah's disappearance?" she asked him softly.

Toby shrugged, "I don't know much. The night she left, dad said something about her career taking off and mom was all excited about a type of proposal."

Linda bit her lip, "Knowing her romanticism, they probably handed her to someone for marriage. Fools!" She paced around the room, muttering constantly to herself, "At the rate of her quick disappearance then, it could have been a fae. That's the only explanation, but then what was this fae holding over her head? What did he want her for? It couldn't be _him_ surely, otherwise I would have heard about it —"

"Excuse me?" Toby said.

Jerking her head up to look at him as though she'd forgotten she was in his room, Linda asked, "Huh?"

"What was that you were muttering about faes? What do you think took her?"

She sighed, "There's only one explanation for her disappearance considering how far and wide I searched aboveground for her. The only place she could be is in underground with a fae, but the question is who."

'Is she crazy?' "I see where Sarah got her stories from now.. _you_ fed them to her, and then she fed them to me."

Linda's eyebrow raised, "Stories?"

"Heh, yeah, she used to tell me about how she had to save me from the Goblin King when I was just a baby."

Her eyes grew cold, "This is important. Did she say _why_ he took you away? What happened when she saved you?"

"Well…" he sat down on the bed, suddenly feeling the implications of what Linda was thinking. 'What am _I_ thinking? It was just a story she told me.. but it always felt so real.' "She'd been upset about having to babysit me, so she wished he would take me away. When he did, she made a deal with him that she'd make it to the center of his Labyrinth within thirteen hours to save me. If she couldn't, then he'd turn me into one of his goblins."

She paced around the room muttering to herself once more, "He can't do that, can he? Maybe he can, but there must be more to it. No one has ever beat his Labyrinth before. Could he have wanted to kidnap Sarah after she humiliated him? It's all coming together, but what to do?"

"Are you trying to make me believe all of that was true?" Toby asked, his hope rising at the thought that he wasn't actually crazy all those years. "Even if it felt true to me, all those memories I have of being around goblins was just a trick of my imagination. Right?"

Linda laughed. "You have a great memory for someone who was so young when it happened… if Sarah said it happened, then I believe it did. My best guess is that the Goblin King _did_ take her, but the problem is how he did that when she obviously defeated him…. Did she say how she defeated him?"

Toby nodded, "She said the words from a book to end it, something about him having no power over her. That was the story she told me."

"Then he must have been watching her for quite some time, and he used the book to bind her fate to him. The only question is how he found his way around that… do you remember anything fishy going on before she was taken?"

Toby looked at her irritably, "It's amazing enough I remember _anything_ , and yet you think… well, I suppose I do remember that day. Mom and dad hired someone else to babysit me while they took Sarah out. She was all dressed up —" he stood and walked over to his closet to reach deep in. He pulled out clothes and old toys until he got to the bottom and found what he'd been looking for. When he turned around, he held up a music box with the figure of a girl dancing in a white ball gown. "— in something like this."

Linda walked toward him quickly and took the music box out of his hand, nearly dropping it as though it had shocked her. "A lot of magic has been directed through this."

"How do you know?" Toby asked aghast.

She took his hand and touched the music box to him, "Look within yourself. Why would you throw this deep in the closet if it didn't feel like there was too much energy to handle in here?"

Toby shrugged, "I didn't.. my mom threw it in the closet. I don't feel anything from it."

"Anything?" she asked in amazement. "What about Sarah's book? Where is it, what is it called?"

"I don't know, my mom hid it somewhere."

Linda stared at the music box for what seemed like forever, pondering something Toby couldn't know. When she finally looked at him, she put the music box on his dresser and gave him a smile. "Tell you what. You and I can start looking for Sarah immediately after we find that book. If I can use that to get her back I will, and the best way for us to get into the Labyrinth is if _you_ wish for him to come. I'll be honest, all the faes know me from my travels in the underground and I doubt they like me so I need to go in incognito."

To find Sarah again was a dream come true for Toby. But, "How do we find a book my mom hid?"

"Get her to come in your room, and I'll take care of it from there," Linda said, pulling a small purse out of her pocket.

Toby leaned forward, "What's that? You're not going to drug her, are you?"

Linda chuckled, "No. Better. I'll show you, just bring her here."

He stared at her suspiciously, "I'm not a fan of my mother, but I also don't want her dead, lady."

She laughed once more, "You're a riot. I'm not doing her any harm, I promise. Just remember to wait until I say it's safe before you come in.. don't want to get you on accident."

With one last glance over his shoulder, he unlocked his bedroom door and opened it to peek his head out. His mother was humming in their bedroom. As he snuck over to it, he was happy to see that she was alone folding laundry.

"Hey mom?" he asked uncertainly. "Is dad around?"

"He just left for the grocery store… what do you need?" she turned around and giddily looked at him. "You know I can help with whatever you have a question about!"

'God, mom, you're weird,' Toby thought, almost sighing with relief that his dad wasn't here to put a dent in his plan. He pointed to his room, "Did you open my window while I was at school? I've been trying to get that hawk out for about twenty minutes."

Her eyes widened, "I did no such thing… urgh, let me see." She grabbed a fly swatter out of one of her drawers and marched over to his room.

'What in the heck does she think a fly swatter's going to do to a hawk?' he thought as he started following her into his room.

"What are _you_ doing here?!" his mom cried out, causing him to freeze in place before even walking in. Soon after she yelled, there was a terrifying silence as he wondered what Linda was possibly doing to his mother.

"You can come in now, Toby," Linda said.

He peeked in to see his mother standing there with an expression of of… dumbness? Her mouth was still open, but it was too slack to be from screaming, and her eyes were blank with no sign of intelligence.

Linda pointed to her bag, "Fae dust specially given from the Fae King. Only he can produce this — it's truth inducing. It brings the victim into a twenty minute trance where anything you ask them, they tell you the truth."

Toby looked at his mother and grinned, "Are you the one leaving the front door wide open?"

"Yes…" she responded robotically.

"Seriously?" he asked, aghast that it was actually true. "Dad's constantly on me about that because you told him _I_ did it!"

Linda shook her head, "Such a shame…. Irene, where is Sarah's book that you hid after she disappeared?"

"Taped.. under.. my.. dresser…"

"Do either you or Robert know anything about where she is?"

"No…"

"Well," Linda looked at Toby, "we have enough time to get the book and call the Goblin King before she wakes up."

They retreated to his parents bedroom. Toby lowered himself to the floor next to his mother's favorite maple dresser and looked under it. Indeed, she'd mercilessly taped it to the bottom, and it took him a couple of minutes just to pull it free. He continued ripping tape off of the book as he stood with it in his hands.

"' _The Labyrinth_ '? _That's_ the name of the book?" Linda asked, as he handed it to her. She flinched as it touched her fingertips, but she said nothing to Toby about it.

She flipped through the pages, her eyes widening as she paged through until close to the end when she stopped on a page to read aloud. "'Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great." Linda paused a moment before she finished, "You have no power over me."

"Those are the words," Toby said. "She complained that she didn't understand why she always forgot that last line. But when my life was on the line, she was able to pull through."

"I see… well, I think that the best plan of action is finding out how to wish the Goblin King here. Sarah must have used the exact words of 'I wish the blank would come take blank away right now.'"

"Why do you keep saying 'blank?'"

"Because," Linda said solemnly, "if I say the specific words, he will appear before I'm ready. I need to hide before he comes so I can sneak a ride with you to the Labyrinth."

"But what if he sees you?" Toby asked.

"There's no doubt he'll see me. But by the time he's transported us to the Labyrinth, he'll just let me come with you anyway… this way, there's no option of him saying I have to reveal who I am before he lets us go through." Linda looked around and settled on crawling up under the bed.

"What am I supposed to say?" Toby was extremely perplexed. This wasn't going to work, it was all just a figment of Sarah and Linda's imagination. Even if it was real, there wasn't line for calling the Goblin King unless he was taking someone away. Yet, what they were trying to do was take someone from him. He decided on testing a couple options, "I wish the Goblin King was here… I wish the Goblin King would come talk to me… I wish the Goblin King would give back what he stole… I wish.. ugh this is pointless.. I wish… I wish the Goblin King would would let me run the Labyrinth to retrieve Sarah Williams right now!"

Silence. Toby looked around him in desperation for the words needed. Until he heard the cackling.

He heard drawers open, but when he turned around they immediately closed up with _slams._ When he looked down at his feet because something scuttled across, whatever it was was already gone. When something started banging the windows — _bang, bang,_ _ **bang**_ — he looked up to see a snow white owl hitting against it. Before he could do anything, the windows opened and the owl fluttered around the room a bit.

Toby closed his eyes and shielded himself in case the owl tried to peck him. But by that point, the sound of wings flapping had stopped. When he opened his eyes again, a man stood in front of the same window Sarah had mentioned the Goblin King appearing.


	4. The Goblin King and His Labyrinth

Toby stared hard at the man before him. Long, wild blonde hair. Large, rugged black cloak. Mismatched, but nonetheless, smoky blue eyes. Sickle shaped pendant around his neck. A crystal ball moving fluently through his fingers, from hand to hand. Toby couldn't help thinking, ' _why_ does this man look familiar?'

"You — You're the Goblin King," Toby said, half-heartedly wondering if he was supposed to bow.

"Toby," the Goblin King replied imperiously. "It's been far too many years since I last saw you."

"We've met before?"

"But of course. Remember your sister's storytelling?"

Toby nodded shyly. "Yeah, but… well, she told me she beat you but then she disappeared. Do you have something to do with that?"

"She resides in my Labyrinth now, yes," the Goblin King said with a raised eyebrow. "What of it?"

Toby stood straighter, hoping it made him seem a little braver than he felt. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get her back the same way she saved me."

The Goblin King merely rolled his crystal ball through his fingers a minute before it turned into a clock that he scrutinized closely. His face scrunched up slightly as he asked, "Do you _know_ how long it's been?"

"Eleven years, yes. I didn't get any memo about a time limit."

The Goblin King laughed. "Fair point, you couldn't have properly saved her when I first took her… You know the rules, then. I give you thirteen hours to solve thatLabyrinth and see Sarah." He pointed out the window and Toby walked forward to glimpse at the castle in the distance surrounded by the most complicated looking maze and impervious walls lined all around it.

" _Who_ is this?" the Goblin King spat in shock.

Toby turned, surprised that he was no longer in his parents' bedroom but surrounded by the very desert the Labyrinth was in, to see the Linda standing next to the Goblin King with her cloak completely covering her face. "I — um — I know it's late to say, but I was hoping to bring a friend along to help me find her."

The Goblin King raised an eyebrow at him, "Anyone I should be suspicious of?"

"No!" Toby replied quickly. "It's no one you'd know or be defensive against… let's just say Sarah knows them well."

"Then why are they wearing a cloak to cover their face?"

"As a surprise." Toby squeezed his hands together as he closely watched the Goblin King's reaction, hoping Linda wouldn't be an automatic disqualification.

"Well, well," he slowly stepped away from Linda with a smirk on his face as he pointed to a clock that appeared suspended in midair. "I hope my trust in you isn't for naught, Toby… your thirteen hours begin." As his words tapered off, the Goblin King slowly faded into thin air until his presence had gone.

Linda came to stand by Toby to stare at the Labyrinth, "So Sarah _has_ been _here_ for eleven years."

Toby detected a faint trace of anger in her voice and looked down to see her fists clenched so tight that they were a light shade of red.

"It took all I had not to smack that smirk right off his pretty face. The gall — after all this time — to act like there was no chance for you to run the Labyrinth. It makes you wonder what he's been having her do all this time."

Toby's brow furrowed as he thought it through. Did she hear something he didn't? "When —?" He couldn't properly get his words out before Linda had begun the trek down the sandy hill, muttering angrily to herself.

It was curious to Toby that if she knew so much about the world the Goblin King lived in, why hadn't she gone looking for Sarah way before now? He'd been too young to even be able to _think_ about going to look for her, let alone have permission from his parents — both of whom always seemed, strangely enough, completely unconcerned.

With a sigh, he hurried down the hill after Linda — tripping over his feet and rolling down to the bottom in a sandy heap. He growled in frustration as he brushed his hair and shirt off.

"Are you all right?" Linda asked.

"Yeah," he groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "That's just normal for me."

Her mouth set into a deep frown as they continued walking towards the entrance, passing trees deader than Toby could have possibly imagined. 'I know I've never been in the desert before, but should trees really look that dead?' he thought curiously to himself.

"Stop me if I'm being too forward, but I don't suppose you have any idea _why_ you're so clumsy?"

He shrugged. "I don't know." He remembered how much clumsier he used to be in elementary school, and had to silently thank God that he figured out how to trip less.

She gave him one last contemplative look before stopping in her tracks to stare at the Labyrinth before them. It looked like just a wide expanse of wall — as imposing a structure as the Great Wall of China his parents had taken him to see one summer. The problem was, he couldn't tell where a door would be.

Around the walls of the Labyrinth were tiny, glittering lights which — upon closer inspection — he realized were fairies. They were beautiful little woman, and he almost reached a hand out to one who got close enough to him before he remembered what Sarah had told him.

" _You have to remember, Toby. As pretty as the fairies are, they bite. I didn't believe Hoggle when he told me, but that's why I got bit._ "

He quickly retracted his hand and walked away to take a closer look at the Labyrinth. Sarah had also mentioned how hard it was to find the entrance, but so long as he asked the right question…. But who could he ask? There was no one around like Hoggle had been for Sarah, so who? The only ones around were —

Something small landed on his shoulder, and he stiffened slightly as he turned to look. A fairy stood there, holding on to his ear for balance, as she grinned at him with sharp little teeth. The smile made him think twice about the fairies — what if there was more to them than met the eyes of the creatures who reside in the Labyrinth?

Sarah had seen Hoggle take out a bunch at a time as though sniping off flies, but why would he need to take the time to do that when they sat outside of the Labyrinth and obviously haven't even gone extinct yet?

"Hold still, I'll swipe it," Linda said, rushing toward him to slap the fairy off.

"Wait…" he said softly.

Linda stopped in her tracks, "Fairies bite, you know?"

"I know, Sarah told me," he replied. "But, something's telling me that the fairies are just like the Labyrinth. There's more to them than we know."

Staring at the fairy a moment, he made the rash decision to give her his pinkie finger. The small creature held on to it tightly before opening her mouth wide and biting hard enough to draw blood. It hurt, he realized, but he also felt as though the longer the fairy kept her mouth on him the more certain memories popped into his mind that he'd long forgotten.

In the castle with Jareth, the goblins had treated him as though he were one of their own. They passed him back and forth, showed him many different things they did for a living. Blacksmithing, tailoring, fighting, bartending, even _pranking_ was a life's job. And it was all hidden in the depths of his memory.

The fairy finally pulled away from his finger to look at him with a — was that _sadness? —_ in her eyes. "I thank you, Tobias Williams."


	5. The Fairy Truth

"Did she just —?" Linda stared at the fairy in shock, a response he hadn't thought possible for the woman who knew so much about the fae kingdom.

"I didn't know you could talk," Toby replied in wonder. "How does that work?"

"Your blood gives us all your memories and ability to speak your language. No one does it anymore on account of the fae king making it law that fairies are dangerous."

"Could it really be?" Linda asked.

"Be what?" Toby replied, watching with a grin as the fairy hugged his finger tightly. It was such a small, light pressure that it almost tickled. "How often would you need someone's blood in order to communicate?"

"We retain the information just fine without drawing blood again. The king ended it because he and all other lords and ladies didn't like that after the blood has been drunk, we can look through the memories as though they're our own."

" _I_ think," Linda mused softly, "that it's more than just a fairy being able to look at their memories. What else is going to happen now that you've drunk Toby's blood?"

"I am bound to him."

"As his servant?"

" _No_!" the fairy crossed her arms in a huff. "I said bound to him, I said nothing about being a servant _or_ a master!"

"As a friend, then," Toby said with a grin.

The fairy's cheeks changed to a rose pink, "Yes, that."

Toby studied the small fairy closely now as she still stood on his shoulder. She had waist length black hair done in curls and gold hair accessories matching her outfit. Most noticeable were her dark blue eyes, deep as the sea.

"What is your name?" he asked curiously.

"I am Sabrixie."

"My sister came to this Labyrinth about fourteen years ago to save me, do you remember her from then or know who bit her?"

Sabrixie shook her head, "I do not possess that knowledge. Each fairy, try as they might, haven't taken what I have from you. Whoever bit your sister would not have taken very much before being swatted away."

"Knowing who bit her won't help us now, Toby," Linda said, still looking pensive. "However, Sabrixie, later I will like to question you more about what prompted the Fae King to make such a decision concerning the fairies."

"Of course," Sabrixie replied.

"Furthermore, do any of you fairies know how to get into the Labyrinth?"

"We all see where the dwarf comes out to exterminate us _and_ where he directs the other kids to." Sabrixie pointed toward the Labyrinth and, where Toby hadn't noticed it before, there was a door that creaked open as they looked at it.

"How often do kids come into the Labyrinth?" Toby asked in surprise, following Linda as she started toward the door.

"At least one every other week. But not to worry, kids never lose against the Goblin King. Not since he married."

"When —" Toby began to ask before being interrupted by a far off voice.

"Hey! Wait for me! Who _are_ you people? Wait!"

Toby and Linda stopped to turn and see a young girl about his age racing toward them. She had long, mouse brown hair, blue jeans and a black t-shirt with wolves on the front.

"What in the world…?" Linda began.

* * *

Five minutes earlier…

* * *

"But Jareth, what are you going to do when her brother reaches the center of the Labyrinth and finds out that Sarah is here of her own free will? What are you going to tell Sarah when she realizes he's here to try to take her back home, and you didn't tell him _anything_?" Serboa the translator goblin berated, yellow hawk eyes glaring pointedly at the Goblin King.

"We'll cross that bridge when it gets here, but for now I want everyone warned. Not a single word to Sarah about him being here." Jareth sat on his throne, staring into the crystal ball in his hands at Toby and the hooded stranger. 'Who i _s_ this person that Toby brought?' he thought. 'Are they a danger to Sarah? No, he wouldn't be so careless of his sister's safety. Could he?'

"But surely she'll notice when we're all gone doing our jobs that someone must be running through the Labyrinth," Serboa snapped. "I will not have her yelling at all of us for your idiotic decision making."

" _Serboa_ ," he replied in frustration.

"What?"

" _Shut_ up. When I want your opinion I will ask. Sarah has made all of you believe you can quarrel with me."

"If we were, I'd make more jokes like I did with Autumn so long ago," Serboa muttered with a sigh.

"And it still isn't funny," Jareth retorted.

"Is too."

Suddenly, his magic senses tingled, and he froze in anticipation. _I wish…_ a girl's voice said in his mind. _I_ _ **so**_ _wish…_

"Anyways, Sarah says our opinions —"

"Shh!" Jareth said quickly. "Someone is making a wish."

 _Addy, I wish the goblins would come and take you away! Right!_ _ **Now!**_

Jareth grinned, information flooding into his brain. He pulled another crystal ball out of his jacket, twirling it around a little, until it showed a small room with a little girl sitting on the floor in tears. "Serboa, send some goblins to grab this six year old girl named Addison. Your worries can be set aside, for there is now someone else to run the Labyrinth _with_ Toby. Sarah can do as she always does and entertain the child."

He disappeared, leaving Serboa with the crystal ball.


	6. A New Addition

"Where! Is! My! Sister?!" the girl yelled, still racing at full speed as she got closer and pounced on Toby. The wind was knocked out of him as he lay sprawled on the ground with her on top of him panting heavily. "Where did the Goblin King take Addy? _Where_?"

As he fought to get his breath back, Toby noticed she held one hand to his chest and the other to a side pocket with a bulging line showing. 'Is that a dagger?!' he thought fearfully. 'Darn it, where did Sabrixie go?!' When he got tackled, the fairy flew off and was now nowhere to be seen.

"Young lady," Linda said gently, holding a hand out to her. "We're also here to find someone he took. We're no enemies."

The girl glared back at her, "And what if I don't believe you?"

Linda reached inside her cloak. There was only the sound of crumbling paper and Toby finally getting his breathing back under his control. She pulled out a flyer, holding it out for the girl to see. The glimpse Toby saw of it was the headliner: 'MISSING TEENAGER: SARAH WILLIAMS', and the same picture right underneath it that Toby treasured most of all. Him and Sarah.

Looking back and forth between him and the picture, she said, "It does _look_ like you. But if you're here now, then that means she's been in here for a long time."

"Eleven years," Toby muttered. "The Goblin King is giving me the chance to save her now, so I brought a friend to help me."

"Why is your face covered?" she asked Linda.

"I don't want the Goblin King to know who I am."

"Who _are_ you, then?"

Linda chuckled, "Let me be honest about something here. I know the Goblin King, and he doesn't change rules for just any reason. He's never _had_ two people run the Labyrinth at the same time, and I don't know why he's doing it now. Until I do know, I don't have any reason to trust that you're a real kid because he also has the power of illusion."

The girl blinked in surprise, but then smiled. "I suppose that's fair if we don't trust each other."

'What in the world..?' Toby thought as he stared at the girl. 'She was just told that she can't be trusted, so she switches from hostile to normal?' He sighed. Considering his mother was just as strange when it came to, well, _anything_ … he just had to come to the conclusion that all women were just _abnormal_.

"Excuse me," Toby said, causing the girl to look down at him, "but can you please get off of me?"

"Sure. Sorry about that," she lifted herself up and held her hand out to help him up. As he took it she asked, "If we have to go through this maze together, then, what are your names?"

Linda spoke first, "My name must remain a secret, so in the meantime you can call me Cloak. That includes you too, Toby, remember it."

He fought the urge to narrow his eyes, 'Out of all the possible aliases, she chooses _Cloak_?' With a shake of his head, he replied, "No problem… _Cloak._ " He looked back at the girl, "Well, she already revealed _my_ name to be Toby. What's yours?"

She smiled, "I'm Madison… but I guess you can call me Maddie. We've got _thirteen_ hours together to go, so let's make the most of it!"

"Hear, hear," _Cloak_ cheered.

All Toby could think to himself as they walked to the entrance was, 'What have I gotten myself into?'


	7. Confused

"It's okay," Sarah said with a reassuring smile to the little girl before her, bending down to look her in the eyes. "I'm not here to hurt you. My name is Sarah, what's yours?"

Wide green eyes stared back at her in disbelief, hands fiddled with short blonde hair. "I'm Addy," she mumbled. "Did my sister really send me here?"

"Not on purpose, I assure you. To be honest, I've been in your sister's position before and I didn't even realize it would actually happen. Here, why don't I show you where she is?" she held out a hand to Addy.

As Addy debated with herself about what to do, Sarah imagined stomping on Jareth's foot. 'So much for that promise to let me know that someone is running the Labyrinth so I can at least be ready for a kid to pop up in my room… and I was going to go for a _walk_ today.'

Sarah could only silently laugh at herself. 'After eleven years of kids randomly appearing next to me, you think I'd be used to it. It's what I get for offering to be a caretaker while their brother, sister, cousin or friend runs the Labyrinth for them. Heck there was even that one time the little girl's _uncle_ had sent her here.'

Addy finally nodded and took her hand, "Okay."

Sarah led her out of the room and down the stairs to Jareth's office. It would have been easier if she could use the crystals herself and just keep one with her, but only _he_ had the ability to make them work. She knew she could always find him in his office, but she quickened her pace a bit because today felt… _different_.

The problem was that she wasn't sure _why_ it felt different. It was like a different smell in the air with no sense of where it was coming from, and it bothered her.

Addy interrupted her thoughts, "You don't _look_ like a goblin."

Sarah couldn't help her laugh, almost every kid had to mention that. "No, of course not. But I _am_ the Goblin Queen."

"My sister reads the story of the Goblin King all the time, and I've never heard it say he had a wife."

"The book is old, probably older than even your parents. I only married the Goblin King recently."

It had been eleven years, but Sarah had to admit the fae magic running through her now made it look like barely any time had past since she started living with Jareth. She looked as though she were still eighteen. It made her wonder sometimes, if she'd taken Jareth's deal back when she was fifteen, would she still look like _that_ now? It made her grateful to have made him wait.

They made it to the office. The cabinet full of crystals was open — about four were gone from the shelves — and Jareth was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" Addy asked.

Sarah ground her teeth, "I have no idea."

Once through the entrance, there was a path going left and a path going right.. both paths looked like they went on for forever. The fog was dense enough that they couldn't see any further than twenty feet on either side. Toby didn't like the odds of something possibly hiding in the fog for them to be attacked.

"Do we split up to see which way is the right way?" Maddie asked curiously.

"No," _Cloak_ said, "the Labyrinth will do whatever it can to separate us. The best option is to stick together and just pick one path to follow."

"Eeeney meenie miney mo?" Toby suggested halfheartedly.

Maddie shrugged, "That works." She pointed left, "Eeney," right, "meenie," and so on, "miney, mo. Catch a tiger by its toe. If it hollers let it go."

Toby swore he heard Linda… well, _Cloak_ … mutter something like, "damn children's game," but Maddie paid no mind until she finished.

"Eeney meenie miney mo. My mom said to pick the best, and _you. Are. It_. We go left," she stepped off to the left, setting a fast pace.

Toby and Cloak followed along, looking around for any openings and touching bricks for possible levers. Despite being half of Toby's height, Maddie sped ahead in an attempt to reach the end of the path.

"Does this ever end?" she called out breathlessly, stopping to lean against a wall. "How long have we been walking?"

Toby checked his watch, "About five minutes."

"Uggghh," she groaned.

"This is the Labyrinth," Cloak said, "we need to find another way. Perhaps we could climb over it…"

They looked up, but the top of the wall seemed to just disappear in the fog.

"Any other bright ideas?" Maddie asked.

Toby went to lean against the wall next to her and found himself falling backwards to the ground with a _thud_. He sighed in resignation, "I found it."

Maddie popped her head around the corner in awe. "I was right next to the opening? Jeez this place is confusing!"

"Smart thinking, Toby," Cloak said as she and Maddie walked through the opening.

"I hope you know that that _wasn't_ thinking," he stood, brushing himself off as he looked around.

They now stood in a field full of large flowers. Seriously large — Alice in Wonderland large — roses, tulips, lilies, dahlias, peonies, orchids and… Sarah's favorite; camellias. All Toby could do as he stared was wait for them to start singing and talking. They didn't do move though. He touched the stem of a rose, carefully avoiding the sharp thorns that were as big as his hands, noting how rubbery it was in comparison to a tree trunk.

"These flowers all require different types of care. How are they all thriving in one area?" he asked.

It surprised him when Maddie answered instead of Cloak.

" _Duh_. Magic."

"You know," Cloak said slowly, "you're accepting magic so easily, Maddie. It makes me curious."

Maddie scrunched her face up, "What do you mean? Curious for what?"

"Toby here grew up with his sister's story about her time here in the Labyrinth and he _still_ forgets magic exists… you've accepted that magic is bound to happen…. Of course, I could merely be overthinking. I'm a very cynical person, even for majoring in magic."

Toby couldn't help himself, "Is that a university subject?"

It caught Cloak off guard, "Well, it's… just call it a figure of speech, if you will. I was only putting it simply as that I know magic like the back of my hand. I may not have any magic of my own, but I understand it and I know how to use magic dust."

"You have more than just the truth dust?"

"Well, of course, Toby, but that's not the point here," Cloak said in exasperation, turning to Maddie again. She stared at her blankly for a second before finally saying, "I'm so confused now, I forgot what I was asking…. Whatever is the matter?"

Maddie's face had gone pale white. She shook her head when Cloak asked what was wrong. "Nothing, I just — well, I've always believed in magic…. and concerning magic, I really think we need to get out of here."

"Why?" Toby asked.

"The more I breathe here, the more confused I get… don't you feel it?" she stumbled over her own feet, catching her balance on a rose's stem. "Up is down and down is up."

Cloak dropped down to her knees. "Confusion dust," she muttered.

Toby looked between the both of them, "Is it just me or are you two being a bit overdramatic? It's just fog! It smells like fake fog from a stage-play, but it's still _fog_."

Cloak and Maddie fell down the rest of the way, passed out.

* * *

 **Author Note:**

 **Hi all! I want to thank anyone who has kept with my Labyrinth fanfics so far, as well as make a proposition. I've started an account on wattpad where I decided to start my Harry Potter fanfic from the very beginning of its journey and eventually do It's Only Forever and As the World Falls Down as well. Wow, I first wrote It's Only Forever back when I was... 17? Anyways, my writing ability has matured miles since then, so I've decided to make edits. For my Harry Potter fanfic I've been uploading one chapter per week, and am keeping that promise to myself as well with Labyrinth so I can get a system going each week.**

 **Of course, I still want to publish my fanfics on here as well, since this is where my practice originally begun. Eventually I will update the chapters I have on here to match what I will have on my wattpad account.**

 **I'll be honest, I want to make a start on the website where if my Harry Potter and Labyrinth fanfics become popular enough, that I will get brave enough to start working on and posting chapters for my own original stories. Wattpad is a door to getting published, should the internet find my story worthy enough, and I want to push myself to take that chance. If you support me, I will be eternally grateful. Thank you for enjoying Melody, and for giving me pointers when I need them, thanks to my joy on this site my writing has grown exponentially.**

 **I also want to say... in the beginning I did not think It's Only Forever would be received so well. I originally wrote the first chapter when it came to me as a sudden thought that wouldn't go away until I had written it all out. I swear, when people start reviewing and enjoying it I basically pushed myself through and made everything up until the end. Hell, I'm still doing it now with As the World Falls Down. I had only wanted to write it as a tribute to mine and my sister's ultimate favorite childhood movie since I'd been allowed to write a literary analysis paper on the movie when I took a practice college course in high school. I appreciate all the attention it has gotten and I promise to keep delivering chapters to the best of my ability, it's just when reality and a sucky job take control it's hard to focus, but I love writing so I know I can't let it push me down.**

 **My wattpad username is fantasywriter19. I was very sad it wouldn't let me use lisa602.**


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